In mid-April, the Patrick Man­ning-led PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion an­nounced gen­er­al elec­tion with just five weeks no­tice, hop­ing to catch the Op­po­si­tion UNC with its pants down. Now the ta­bles are turned as new­ly-ap­point­ed Prime Min­is­ter, Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, an­nounced Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions, al­so with a mere five weeks no­tice, hop­ing to catch the bruised and bat­tered PNM un­pre­pared. The an­nounce­ment has been met with mixed re­ac­tions af­ter an ex­haust­ing and in­tense gen­er­al elec­tion cam­paign. Some view it as a bril­liant po­lit­i­cal strat­e­gy by the Gov­ern­ment to cap­i­talise in and cap­ture the hype and mo­men­tum gen­er­at­ed by the Peo­ple's Part­ner­ship in the May 24 gen­er­al elec­tion. Oth­ers per­ceive it as a hasty and rushed po­lit­i­cal­ly ex­pe­di­ent move, de­priv­ing the pop­u­la­tion of much-need­ed con­sul­ta­tion which should pre­cede such elec­tions.

At the heart of the de­bate lies a fun­da­men­tal is­sue of the de­mo­c­ra­t­ic right of cit­i­zens. The Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment elec­tions have been post­poned sev­er­al times by the PNM ad­min­is­tra­tion on the grounds of the need for lo­cal gov­ern­ment re­form. The elec­tions are long over­due as cit­i­zens have been cheat­ed of their de­mo­c­ra­t­ic rights to elect rep­re­sen­ta­tives to the fore­most peo­ple-cen­tered or­gan­i­sa­tion in the coun­try.

Span­ish Ca­bil­dos

A jour­ney through his­to­ry re­veals that lo­cal gov­ern­ment in Trinidad dates back to the Span­ish colo­nial­ists who es­tab­lished the Roy­al Ca­bil­do in St Joseph in 1768. Elect­ed by the tax­pay­ers an­nu­al­ly, the op­er­a­tions of the Ca­bil­do was much broad­er in scope than the present-day mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions. It ex­er­cised wide ex­ec­u­tive pow­ers with func­tions rang­ing from ap­point­ing chief judges on the is­land, su­per­vis­ing mar­kets, scav­eng­ing and re­pair­ing streets, con­trol­ling the po­lice and the Roy­al Goal, ad­mit­ting physi­cians and sur­geons, and levy­ing du­ties and tax­es on grog shops. The tax­pay­ers elect­ed the mem­bers of the Ca­bil­do an­nu­al­ly. When the last Span­ish Gov­er­nor of Trinidad, Don Jos� Maria Cha­con, as­sumed of­fice in 1783, he im­me­di­ate­ly re­struc­tured the Ca­bil­do by lim­it­ing its pow­er. He al­so or­dered the re­lo­ca­tion of the Ca­bil­do from St Joseph to Port-of-Spain in 1784.

British Mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties

The British took con­trol of Trinidad in 1797 and di­vid­ed the is­land in­to the Eng­lish-style mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties. Gov­er­nor Pic­ton in­sti­tut­ed the mod­i­fied Ca­bil­do or cen­tral gov­ern­ment in that same year. In 1840, the pas­sage of Or­di­nance No. 6 trans­formed the Ca­bil­do in­to the Town Coun­cil of Port-of-Spain. The Pres­i­dent of the Town Coun­cil was the Gov­er­nor who formed a lim­it­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment with 12 Town Coun­cil­lors. Gov­er­nor Har­ris es­tab­lished a sys­tem of coun­ties and wards in an ef­fort to es­tab­lish a lo­cal gov­ern­ment ad­min­is­tra­tion in 1849. The Town Coun­cil soon out­lived its use­ful­ness and Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Or­di­nance No 10 of 1853 es­tab­lished the Bor­ough of Port-of-Spain with Dr Louis De­V­er­teuil as its first may­or.

How­ev­er, re­peat­ed squab­bles over mon­ey with the cen­tral gov­ern­ment led the British gov­ern­ment to re­voke the bor­ough sta­tus with ef­fect from Jan­u­ary 1, 1899. Port-of-Spain was left in the hands of com­mis­sion­ers. Be­tween 1907 and 1914, a Town Board took over from the com­mis­sion­ers. The bat­tle to re­in­state bor­ough sta­tus end­ed with Or­di­nance No 24 of 1914, which con­ferred on­to Port-of-Spain, the sta­tus of city. In 1888, Ari­ma be­came a bor­ough by Roy­al Char­ter grant­ed by Queen Vic­to­ria. This made Ari­ma the first and on­ly Roy­al Bor­ough in the Caribbean.

Coun­ty Coun­cils

The Or­di­nance of the Reg­u­la­tion of Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion which was en­act­ed in 1853 gave mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties the sta­tus of cor­po­ra­tions. Trinidad was di­vid­ed in­to eight coun­ties by the Di­vi­sion of Trinidad Act 1927 which func­tioned as the ad­min­is­tra­tive sys­tem for Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment pri­or to the re­forms of 1990. These coun­ties were sub-di­vid­ed in­to wards. The 1930s so­cial ri­ots and the rec­om­men­da­tions of the Moyne Com­mis­sion com­bined to give rise to Coun­ty Coun­cils which were es­tab­lished in 1945 through Or­di­nance No. 18. These di­vi­sions were com­prised of three ex­ist­ing mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties and sev­en new­ly-formed Coun­ty Coun­cils. Or­di­nance No. 39 em­pow­ered the Coun­ty Coun­cils which de­fined the wards as elec­toral di­vi­sions.

The Sinanan Com­mis­sion which was a Cab­i­net-ap­point­ed com­mit­tee charged with the task of reap­prais­ing the sys­tem of lo­cal gov­ern­ment was in­stru­men­tal in the pas­sage of the Coun­ty Coun­cils Act 22 of 1967. The abo­li­tion of the Ca­bil­do in 1840 and the cre­ation of a Town Coun­cil in Port-of-Spain, served as an im­pe­tus for sim­i­lar au­thor­i­ty in San Fer­nan­do where a Town Coun­cil was es­tab­lished in 1846 with Dr Robert John­stone as its first pres­i­dent. In 1853, San Fer­nan­do was el­e­vat­ed to the sta­tus of bor­ough by the same or­di­nance No. 10 through which the Port-of-Spain Bor­ough Coun­cil was es­tab­lished. Elec­tions in No­vem­ber 1953 saw Dr John­stone as San Fer­nan­do's first may­or.

San Fer­nan­do be­came a city on No­vem­ber 18, 1989. Over the years, Ari­ma, Point Fortin and Ch­agua­nas have al­so been el­e­vat­ed to bor­ough sta­tus. In 1945, when the coun­ty coun­cil sys­tem was first in­tro­duced, To­ba­go was ad­min­is­tered as a coun­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go. But the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly was re­vived with the pas­sage of Act No 37 of 1980. The As­sem­bly is re­spon­si­ble for all lo­cal gov­ern­ment ac­tiv­i­ties on the is­land. To­ba­go is di­vid­ed in­to sev­en parish­es–name­ly, St George, St Mary, St An­drew, St Patrick, St David, St Paul and St John.

Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tions

Un­der the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions Act 21 of 1990, all Coun­ty Coun­cils were abol­ished in Trinidad. The re-draw­ing of lo­cal gov­ern­ment bound­aries saw the cre­ation of 18 mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties. The Act was amend­ed in 1992 re­sult­ing in 14 mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties to­day in­clud­ing two cities–Port-of-Spain and San Fer­nan­do; three bor­oughs–Ari­ma, Ch­agua­nas and Point-Fortin; and nine re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions–Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Diego Mar­tin, Ma­yaro/Rio Claro, Pe­nal/Debe, Princes Town, San Juan/Laven­tille, San­gre Grande, Siparia and Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co. Cur­rent­ly, the UNC con­trols five out of the 14 mu­nic­i­pal­i­ties which in­clude Princes Town, Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro, Pe­nal/Debe, Ma­yaro/Rio Claro and the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion. The oth­er nine are held by the PNM some of which the Part­ner­ship hopes to wrest on Ju­ly 26.